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Bob Scheier is a 20-year veteran of the IT trade press whose specialty is translating IT jargon into business benefits. Besides writing for major trade publications such as Computerworld, he produces white papers, email newsletters and other marketing collateral for major IT vendors including Microsoft, AT&T, Symantec and Nokia.

Recent Activity

This blog is moving; please adjust your feed...

Effective immediately, Bob Scheier's Tech Trends blog is moving to a new RSS URL, http://scheierassociates.com/feed, and be combined with his ongoing "What Works, What Doesn't" blog. Please resubscribe to the new feed at http://scheierassociates.com/feed and look forward to more frequent... Continue reading

Posted Feb 28, 2011 at Tech Trends

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This blog is moving; please adjust your feed...

...as a result of a move to Wordpress, Bob Scheier's "What Works, What Doesn't" blog can now be found at http://scheierassociates.com/feed. Please resubscribe using the new feed URL, http://scheierassociates.com/feed, and look forward to more frequent and varied posts soon! Continue reading

Posted Feb 28, 2011 at What Works, What Doesn't

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787 Lessons From Boeing For Content Marketers

Head out to Paine Field in Everett, Washington, and you’ll see 20-25 brand new, nearly finished 787 airliners sitting on the flight line. Boeing can’t deliver them to customers (or get fully paid for them) until they perform more than... Continue reading

Posted Feb 7, 2011 at What Works, What Doesn't

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Stop the WordPress Madness!

One month and hundreds of dollars worth of development help ago, I began consolidating my Web site and blog onto WordPress, the popular blog, Web site and content publishing system. My new site still isn’t up, I’ve lost dozens of... Continue reading

Posted Feb 3, 2011 at What Works, What Doesn't

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Are We Scrubbing the LIfe Out of Press Releases?

When drafting a press release for a client recently, I highlighted a lot of the themes that would have made it a great newspaper feature. These included dramatic government budget cutbacks, a scramble for funds among richer and poorer regions,... Continue reading

Posted Feb 1, 2011 at What Works, What Doesn't

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If You MUST Write A Press Release, Do It Better

At Schwartz Communications’ breakfast roundtable on content marketing last week, attendees were asked to rank which channels they used to get the news out about their company. Plenty of people use “blogs,” “Twitter,” “Facebook,” or “LinkedIn” but “press release” barely... Continue reading

Posted Dec 21, 2010 at What Works, What Doesn't

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Holiday Kudos to iPhone, iPod App That Eases Life for Speech-Impaired

In a holiday break from my usual coverage of data center/virtualization/storage, I wanted to give a tip of the proverbial hat to my friend and colleague Bob Gallagher. Besides pursuing a busy career in marketing automation, he’s developed an app... Continue reading

Posted Dec 16, 2010 at Tech Trends

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12 Quick Content Marketing Tips and Trends

The frigid cold along Route 128 the other morning didn’t keep a standing-room-only crowd from Schwartz Communications’ Breakfast Roundtable on content marketing (using information shared on the Web to drive sales.) Featured speakers were Ann Handley, Chief Content Officer at... Continue reading

Posted Dec 16, 2010 at What Works, What Doesn't

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F5 Extends Its Storage Virtualization Into the Cloud

As data storage needs go up (but budgets don’t) businesses are looking for smarter ways to manage growth (as I recently described in Computerworld) than simply buying more disk. There are plenty of vendors standing by to help with products... Continue reading

Posted Dec 7, 2010 at Tech Trends

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Software Automates Sportswriting. Is B2B Content Marketing Next?

Hell, no, I say, and not just because I make my living writing white papers, newsletters, and the like for the IT market. Here’s why. Yes, StatSheet of Durham, N.C. has developed software that writes (or, rather, assembles) stories based... Continue reading

Posted Nov 29, 2010 at What Works, What Doesn't

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How Much Rope Should You Give a “Corporate Reporter?”

Companies have been hiring ex-journalists for years as PR people because they knew how to tell a story and how to work with their fellow ink-stained wretches. (For those old enough to remember ink.) Marketing automation vendor Eloqua has gone... Continue reading

Posted Nov 9, 2010 at What Works, What Doesn't

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Software Consultancy: Why MA Is Hot

Software consultancy Software Advice has a good business model: Provide customers free software reviews and advice, both on-line and over the phone, and get paid by vendors when they pass on a quality lead based on those interactions. Its market... Continue reading

Posted Oct 19, 2010 at What Works, What Doesn't

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Can PR Firms Find Gold in Marketing Automation Services?

Some of the more forward-looking PR firms I work with are looking to supplement traditional PR offerings with demand generation services, using marketing automation software such as Marketo and HubSpot to track prospect’s actions to “nurture” them with additional content... Continue reading

Posted Oct 12, 2010 at What Works, What Doesn't

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Finding the Mythical C-Level Exec

Like the unicorn, whose horn was said to cure illnesses and neutralize poison, the C-level executive is a mythical creature, though long hunted by IT sales rep looking for a cure to their late-quarter sales slump. But, as Forrester Research... Continue reading

Posted Sep 30, 2010 at What Works, What Doesn't

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HP Boosts Arrays With QOS, By-The-Drink Pricing For Management Software

Even when the economy tanks, demand for storage soars. Everything from regulations to global collaboration to marketing Webcasts eat up disk space like crazy. But with budgets staying tight, big organizations want to consolidate ever more data on ever fewer... Continue reading

Posted Sep 29, 2010 at Tech Trends

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Maintenance Fees, a Cash Cow for Vendors, Under Attack From Users

Some customers are pushing back on software maintenance agreements, threatening vendors with the loss of their most predictable, profitable continuing revenue stream. Priced at 15% or 18% (or more) of the up-front purchase price of the software, maintenance agreements provide... Continue reading

Posted Sep 20, 2010 at What Works, What Doesn't

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Apple Targets The Business Market -- Again

Somewhat surprised itself by the widespread business acceptance of the iPad, Apple is ramping up its attempts to sell to business, not just consumers. Unlike previous attempts, where Apple never got past niches such as design groups, the folks from... Continue reading

Posted Sep 13, 2010 at Tech Trends

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It's Official: Forrester Says B2B Buyers Hate Confusing Jargon

I’ve been yelling for years that technical jargon in marketing content turns off B2B business buyers. Now, it’s official – or at least corroborated by a Forrester Research Inc. report. “Vendor use of jargon and their lack of simplifying issue... Continue reading

Posted Sep 7, 2010 at What Works, What Doesn't

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Hurricane Earl Reporting: All Fear, No News

Because of the emergency conditions imposed by Hurricane Earl, I interrupt my usual B2B marketing musings with a rant about TV news – or the lack of it. With one home on the coast in Massachusetts and another in Maine,... Continue reading

Posted Sep 3, 2010 at Tech Trends

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XebiaLabs, BMC Tackle Java Deployment

Back when Java was launched in the mid 90s, the mantra was “Write once, run anywhere” – one code base could be deployed smoothly across any platform from, say, a smartphone to a mainframe, greatly reducing software development and deployment... Continue reading

Posted Aug 31, 2010 at Tech Trends

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When Security's Mission-Critical, Customers Pay Up

It’s long been a truism that companies will only open their wallets and spend on security when the security folks no longer have to prove a “return on investment” from it. When security is just accepted as a necessity for... Continue reading

Posted Aug 24, 2010 at Tech Trends

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Toyota Ad Shows Need For Outsider's Eye on Marketing Content

One of the biggest blunders tech marketers make is not clearly explaining what their products do. A recent ad from Toyota makes this thunderlingly obvious mistake, and shows why it’s so important to get an outsider’s eye to review your... Continue reading

Posted Aug 19, 2010 at What Works, What Doesn't

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Amateur Bloggers Jump Ship, Pros Taking Over

A story in the current Newsweek says that interest in amateur (non-profit) blogging and contributing to Wikipedia is falling off rapidly as, frankly, people get tired of working for free. The story mentions, in passing, that according to Technorati, professional... Continue reading

Posted Aug 12, 2010 at What Works, What Doesn't

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Virtual Trade Shows for Mere Mortals

SAP appears to have done a bang-up job with its combined physical and virtual customer conferences, according to B2B Magazine. Not only did it focus on getting customers to talk to each other, (VS. SAP talking at them,) but tracked... Continue reading

Posted Aug 10, 2010 at What Works, What Doesn't

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First Rule of Content Marketing: Don't Say Anything Dumb

OK, maybe some people are so dumb they don’t know a heater gets hot. But they’re not who’s seeing your marketing content if you’re selling a big-ticket IT product or service. Those types are knowledgeable, have a lot on their... Continue reading

Posted Aug 3, 2010 at What Works, What Doesn't

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